Word on the Reef
Inspiring interviews with marine conservation legends.
Episodes
84 episodes
Two-Headed Fish And The Hidden Cost Of Farm Chemicals with Professor Matt Landos
In 2008, fish veterinarian and Adjunct Professor Professor Matt Landos was hired to investigate a series of chilling occurrences at a fish hatchery in Noosa. In one incident, hundreds of thousands of fish larvae hatched with two heads, a...
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S3 E27: Saving Wildlife from Deadly Shark Nets with Brenton Owens, Kaelan Lockhart and Pierick Martin
The whale was bellowing out for help - so Brenton Owens weighed up the risks, and acted. A few days later, he received an infringement notice.In 2024, diver and environmental scientist Brenton Owens and a group of neighbours paddl...
S3 E26: The Human-Nature Connection with Tyá Dynevor
Tyá Dynevor has always felt a special connection with animals, which has led her to becoming an ethnozoologist - someone who studies the relationship between humans and animals. It's something Traditional Owners have known about for millen...
Meet Legendary 90-Year-Old Shipwreck-Hunter Ben Cropp
Now available in video format on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! In this episode we sit down with Australian diving legend Ben Cropp AM to trace a life that swings from shark hunting fame to conservation, shipwreck discovery, and hard-won lessons f...
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S3 E24: Magnetic Island Residents Fight Dredge Spoil Dumping
A group of Magnetic Island residents believes the annual dumping of maintenance dredge spoil by the Port of Townsville may be creating sediment plumes that smother some of the island's pristine bays, coral reefs, and marine life.And with...
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S3 E23: The Power of Parrotfish PLUS Priority Reefs with Professor Pete Mumby
Twenty years ago, the Belize Barrier Reef was in serious trouble, and nobody could quite figure out why. Then Professor Pete Mumby helped uncover the surprising role of an unlikely reef hero: the parrotfish. Today, we’re diving into the incredi...
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S3 E22: Fear vs Facts: Australia's Shark Culling Debate
They’ve claimed the lives of thousands of marine animals along Australia’s east coast, including turtles, whales, dolphins, rays and dugongs. No, we’re not talking about sharks. We’re talking about the shark nets and baited drum lines deployed ...
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S3 E21: Diving Indonesia's Incredible Komodo Islands
Join us aboard the luxury liveaboard boat Mikumba Dua for a journey into one of the world's most incredible destinations! We'll explore local culture with our guide
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S3 E20: The Last Saw: Saving Sawfish with Dr Barbara Wueringer
Sawfish, the extraordinary relatives of sharks and rays, once roamed tropical and subtropical waters around the globe. Today they've vanished from much of their former range, with Northern Australia remaining one of their last global stronghold...
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S3 E19: Protecting Paradise: The Future of the Coral Sea Marine Park
Beyond the Great Barrier Reef lies one of the world's largest marine protected areas: the Coral Sea Marine Park. Home to spectacular reefs, abundant marine life and some of the planet's best dive sites, it's one of Australia's last great ocean ...
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S3 E18: Gone Buggo: Tiny Animals of the Reef and Rainforest with Steven Gill
Reef and Rainforest tour guide Steven Gill is on a mission to bug you... in the best possible way. Armed with a camera, a handful of LEGO bricks and an infectious love for the tiny creatures we usually overlook, he's proving that the smallest c...
S3 E17: CoralWatch: Citizen Science in Full Colour
Fifty shades of coral? Not quite... but those colours tell an incredible story. This week we're diving into CoralWatch, the world's longest-running DIY reef science project. Discover how anyone with ...
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S3 E16: Fish out of their (Usual) Waters: Why Marine Life are Moving Poleward
Scientists have discovered that marine species are migrating away from the equator at a rate of 40 to 70 kilometres per decade to get to cooler waters as climate change heats up our ocean.But far from being a viable escape plan, this mas...
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S3 E15: Seafood Fishing and Aquarium Harvesting on the Great Barrier Reef: Are they Sustainable?
Every year up to 7,000 tons of seafood is caught on the Great Barrier Reef, while up to 190 tons of coral is collected for the international aquarium trade. But how sustainable are these fisheries? And as consumers, how can we make sure we're m...
S3 E14: Reef Fish Beneath our City: Restoring Cairns' Urban Waterways and Oyster Reefs with Phil Laycock
Did you know that some Great Barrier Reef fish species are spending part of their life cycle in the middle of our city? That's right, marine fish species could be as close as your nearest concrete storm water drain, swimming among abandoned sho...
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S3 E13: The First Scientists: How Indigenous Knowledge can Help Protect our Oceans
For 65,000 years before computers, satellites, and scientific journals, Australia's first peoples were reading tides, stars, seasons, animal behaviour, currents, and ecosystems with extraordinary precision. Yet until recently, their knowledge w...
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S3 E12: Mud, Blood and Sea Turtles: Caitlin's Quest to Give Turtles a Future
In 2022, a mass stranding of more than 600 sick turtles devastated Hervey Bay in South East Queensland. As volunteers worked tirelessly to rescue them, scientists got to work on solving the puzzle: what caused this disaster?Dr Caitlin Sm...
S3 E11: Project Manta: The Secret Lives of Gentle Giants
Professor Kathy Townsend knew she wanted to be a marine biologist from the age of five, and completed her very first dive in a frozen Canadian lake. But it was the moment a five-metre manta ray draped its tail over her shoulder like an affectio...
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S3 E10: Dugong Wars: The Fight to Save Mermaids with Professor Helene Marsh
When Professor Helene Marsh first began researching dugongs on the Great Barrier Reef, the only ones she encountered were dead - tangled in fishing nets.Then, in the 1990s, Queensland became the centre of a fierce conservation battle kno...
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S3 E9: Meet Gary, the King of Nudibranchs (AKA the Ocean’s Craziest Sea Slugs)
He's broken several world records: largest group skydive, longest scuba dive on a single tank—and the most species of nudibranchs ever found on a single dive (71).He's spent 23 years chasing these tiny creatures, building a global follow...
S3 E8: UNESCO Sounds Alarm on the Great Barrier Reef + Cyclone Narelle’s Fallout
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is concerned about the Great Barrier Reef - warning Australia to do more to protect it or risk an “In Danger” listing. So how serious is this threat, and are governments doing enough to respond?This we...
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S3 E7: The Aeroplane that Flies Underwater: A Game Changer for Marine Science?
Critics said it would never work. But after 30 years of surveying reefs the hard way - diving with a slate and pencil - marine ecologist Brett Kettle knew there had to be a better way. So he built one.In this episode of Word on the Reef, Ta...
S3 E6: Starfish vs. The Great Barrier Reef: Can We Stop Them? [EXTENDED VERSION]
What has eyes on the tips of its 20 arms, venomous spines, is almost impossible to kill — and is munching the world’s largest reef?Meet the crown-of-thorns starfish.Professor Morgan Pratchett has spent years studying this formidable pre...
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S3 E5: Eco-Grief: Why Loving Nature Can Hurt - and What To Do About It [EXTENDED DIVE]
As climate change, coral bleaching and biodiversity loss dominate the news, many people are experiencing something psychologists now call eco-grief or climate anxiety — the emotional response to witnessing environmental change.To unpack ...
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S3 E4: Reef Time Capsules: What Coral Cores Reveal About the Reef’s Past
Did you know coral skeletons contain a record of every flood event in Queensland since 1648?We often hear that climate and water pollution conditions on the Great Barrier Reef have changed dramatically since pre-industrial times. But how...
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